Over the past week, one story flooded all of the local news stations. On Sunday, March 20th, a playground in Jasper, AL was set fire around three in the morning.
This story grabbed my attention, because Jasper is my hometown. I also spent two of my summers working at the city pool, where the APEX playground is located. APEX was built in 2007 in hopes of providing a fun, safe environment for disabled children. With its modern design and rubber flooring, this playground has been cherished by our town for the past four years. I also do a lot of volunteer work with the children this playground was created for, so this news really broke my heart.
NBC13's report of the story aired the following morning. I dreaded what I knew was about to appear on my screen. Of course, I was upset about the arson crime, but I was more upset that, yet again, Jasper was portrayed as another "hick" Alabama town. Although there is a large quantity of rednecks, there is an abundance of educated citizens as well. I felt like the reporters intentionally picked out a person off the street wearing a wife-beater and do-rag to, more or less, "dumb" the story down. While vandalism to a playground is not exactly hard hitting news, the story did have value, and interviewing people, who obviously lack an education, does not help the matter.
On the other hand, interviewing someone of a higher social status and intelligence did not necessarily help the story either. Mayor Sonny Posey was interviewed, and although I did not support his candidacy, I think NBC could have done better editing of his footage. I was in complete and utter shock as the fourth word that left his mouth was "bastardly." Yes, he could have chosen a better choice of words. But as one of the top broadcasting stations in the area, NBC should have used to discretion for the audience. The fact that that term was used in a story regarding a playground makes no sense to me.
If more focus had been placed on interviewing citizens the crime directly effected instead of finding idiotic comments to air, this could have been a better report.
Good work, as usual.
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